'Spider-Man' co-writer tells his side of story

Monday

Nov 4, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 4, 2013 at 12:00 PM

NEW YORK - Out of the blue during the summer, playwright Glen Berger got a call from director Julie Taymor. He assumed an accident: The two hadn't spoken for more than two years after a bitter falling-out during the rocky launch of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

NEW YORK — Out of the blue during the summer, playwright Glen Berger got a call from director Julie Taymor.

He assumed an accident: The two hadn’t spoken for more than two years after a bitter falling-out during the rocky launch of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

Taymor, also a co-writer, had been fired, and a flurry of lawsuits began.

So Berger was surprised when Taymor left a message asking him to call her. He was tempted, but he knew to be careful. His lawyer advised him not to return the call.

The advice proved to be pointless: Taymor later called Berger from a blocked number, and he picked up.

“The first thing out of her mouth was ‘All right, so, am I going to have to worry about this book?’”

Berger’s Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History (Simon & Schuster, 384 pages, $25) is to be released on Tuesday. It marks the playwright’s attempt to make sense of a $75 million spectacle that took six years of his life and turned his work into a punch line.

“Lord knows I didn’t write this book to distress anyone. It’s such a capital-S story that I would have had to turn in my badge as a writer if I had passed it up,” he explained in an interview.

Berger recounts the endless frustrations, accidents, secret emails and hubris. At one point, he was working on multiple secret scripts and plotting in the men’s room.

Yet the book doesn’t contain any bombshells that aren’t already known by the public.

“Of course, I’m rooting for the show,” said Berger, who continues to receive checks from the musical and daily show reports.

He isn’t privy to plans — if any — for Spider-Man after Broadway, he said.

Taymor hasn’t seen the book, a spokesman said, and won’t have a comment.